1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring Health Care Workers, visitors and other person's hygiene practices when attending patients in order to promote compliance with required hygienic protocol while concurrently monitoring actions and conditions of patients thereby protecting patients and staff who may be adversely affected by non compliance with such protocols.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
The Center for Disease Control, health care facilities and other institutions have recognized the need for promoting personal hygiene among workers. One of the most common practices by such institutions is to post signs in hallways and restrooms reminding workers that their hands must be washed. More sophisticated systems have been developed for monitoring the actions of workers. One such system includes badges worn by workers that are capable of transmitting or receiving information. As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,317, workers are provided with badges that detect entry into an area that may be unsanitary and alert the workers to this fact. If a worker subsequently washes his hands or activates a disposable glove dispenser following such exposure, the alerting function of the badge is deactivated. If appropriate action is not taken by a worker, a violation is recorded by the badge or a system controller.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,882,278 describes another system that monitors compliance with recommended hand-washing practices. The system includes a hand-washing detector and an event detector such as a motion detector that detects an event such a person entering or leaving a room. A control unit determines whether a person has washed his hands within a predetermined time period before entering the room.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,727,818 and 6,975,231 disclose other systems for promoting hygienic practices. The first mentioned patent discloses a system that tracks the movements of health care workers throughout the facility and within a patient's room. The health care workers are provided with badges that transmit ID information to sensors located in the hallways and rooms of the facility, which in turn transmit location information to a master station. ID information is also transmitted to wash sink sensors to indicate whether the health care worker has washed his hands. If the health care worker enters a patient contact zone in the patient's room without having complied with the required hand washing procedure, an alert is provided by the health care worker's badge and/or other alerting devices located on the patient's bed or in the patient's room.
A time delay may be employed before a warning alert is provided so that an alert is not triggered by a health care worker who is only briefly in the patient contact zone. U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,231 discloses a system employing sets of detectors located just outside and within a patient's room. These detectors are actuated sequentially as a person enters the room and the time between their actuation is monitored in determining whether a person has entered the room. A determination is made as to whether the person has washed his hands within a predetermined period of time, and a warning signal is generated if the hands have not been washed within the set period.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,090,155 Lacey discloses the use of a camera to monitor the hands so as to determine hand washing activity but does not provide a means to address the issue of identifying whose hands are being monitored and their relationship to the patient.
U.S. Patent No. 2011/027740, U.S. Pat. No. 8,110,047 U.S. Pat. No. 8,094,029, 20050248461, U.S. Pat. No. 8,085,155, U.S. Pat. No. 7,898,407, U.S. Pat. No. 7,855,651, U.S. Pat. No. 7,818,083 U.S. Pat. No. 7,682,464, U.S. Pat. No. 7,605,704, U.S. Pat. No. 7,375,640 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,372,367 hygiene monitoring schemes all require the use of RFID badges. The application of RFID as the backbone of almost all currently available hygiene monitoring systems ignores the restrictive nature presented by this technology. RFID limitations become apparent when considering the absence of an RFID badge being carried by a caregiver, Health Care Worker or visitor allows the potential hygiene violator to then become invisible to the associated monitoring system. The use of radio waves opposed to three dimensional visual imaging as a means of determining location and proximity, are subject to inconsistencies in ranging dependent on many outside variables, particularly in a RF “noisy” hostile hospital environment. Radiating in a fixed circular or elliptical pattern, the application of such radio waves or IR beams opposed to three dimensional imaging for near proximity monitoring is extremely limited in resolving “the finite point of care”, the actual probable contamination point between the rectangular shaped patient and/or bed patient and the HCW or visitor.
The benefits of signs reminding people to sanitize their hands are believed to be limited in effectiveness. Interactive systems that notify a person that he has not performed a required procedure are likely to result in better compliance, particularly if coupled with a system that makes a record of violations. It is important, however, to avoid “false alarms” that would cause a person to be notified of a compliance issue unnecessarily or record a violation where no issue of potential contamination is present. For example, a number of persons entering a hospital room do so for purposes other than treating a patient, and accordingly will not contact or even closely approach a patient. A system that signals hygienic warnings for such persons may tend to be ignored over time as too many warnings are issued during the course of a day. To the greatest possible extent, a system should display warnings only with respect to persons who actually come in close proximity or contact with a patient and have not complied with required hygienic practices before doing so. It is also important to detect unauthorized persons who may approach or come into contact with a patient regardless of whether they are wearing a badge or other type of transmitting/receiving apparatus. Additionally, as patients are often capable of moving from their beds and in and out of their rooms, warnings due to such movements should either not be displayed or reflect the fact that they are patient-initiated when not within prescribed hospital protocol and patient injury has or may result from such action. Health Care Workers, visitors and HCWs attending aforementioned patients shall all be considered as the same within this description and such terms to be used interchangeably.
The observation of Health Care Workers (HCW) and patients is not limited to only monitoring hygiene practices. Tens of thousands of serious injuries to patients occur every year when those patients, not capable of ambulating without assistance attempt to leave their bed unassisted. As patients are often capable of moving in and out of their beds and rooms as well, warnings due to such movements should either be displayed or reflect the fact that they are patient-initiated when not within prescribed hospital protocol and the probability of patient injury has or may result from such action. Additionally, certain specific anatomical movements involving the patients limbs and/or body may be indicative of a medical emergency, requiring immediate medical assistance Monitoring and interpretation of these actions and the results of the patient violating hospital protocol while attempting to leave their bed or room, can be accomplished by the methods described herein.